A communication system permits data to be communicated between separate communication stations, formed, at a minimum, of a sending station and a receiving station. The use of a communication system by which to communicate data is, and shall likely continue increasingly to be, a necessary aspect of modern society. A wide variety of communication systems have been developed and are utilized regularly through which to effectuate many different types of communication services.
Technological advancements, such as advancements in communication technologies, have been implemented in communication systems. Improvements to existing types of communication systems as well as the implementation of new types of communication systems have been made possible as a result of such advancements in technologies.
Radio communication systems are exemplary of communication systems in which technological advancements have been implemented. In a radio communication system, communication channels are defined upon radio links formed between the communication stations thereof. The need otherwise to utilize wirelines to interconnect the communication stations is obviated. Radio communication systems are therefore amenable for implementation as mobile communication systems.
A cellular communication system is a type of radio communication system. Voice, as well as data, communication services are effectuable through the use of a cellular communication system. Access to use of a cellular communication system is generally provided pursuant to a subscription for service therein. In some areas, use of cellular communication systems is increasingly becoming a primary manner by which to communicate telephonically. And, as cellular communication systems increasingly are constructed to permit the communication of increased amounts of data at increasingly high data rates, data-intensive communication services are also increasingly effectuated through the use of a cellular communication system.
Successive generations of cellular communication systems have been developed and implemented. And, successor-generation communication systems are undergoing development that takes advantage of technological advancements in communication technologies. While initial-generation, cellular communication systems provide for limited data services, third-generation and successor-generation communication systems are anticipated to be used, in significant part, to perform data communication services. Various standard-setting bodies are promulgating operational specifications that define the parameters of operation of such successor-generation systems. When data is communicated at high data rates with high user penetration levels, carrier frequencies of higher frequency levels or wider-spectrum bandwidths are required to permit the data to be communicated at the high data rates.
Various problems must, however, be overcome when the higher carrier frequencies and wider-spectrum bandwidths are utilized. Amongst the problems associated with communications at the higher-carrier frequencies and wider-spectrum bandwidths is that transmitted signals exhibit higher levels of propagation loss as well as higher levels of residual noise. Conventionally, compensation is made for the higher propagation loss and higher noise level by increasing the output power of the transmitted signal.
Increase in the output power level of the transmit signal is, however, practically limited. For instance, when the communication station from which the data is to be communicated is powered by a portable power supply, of limited energy storage capacity, increased power output requirements increase the speed at which the battery power supply becomes depleted of stored energy.
While communication services that are communicated at high data rates are conventionally contemplated to be originated at a network part of a communication system, proposed, communication services of successor-generation systems shall likely also be originated at mobile, or data, terminals that are powered by the portable battery power supplies of the limited energy storage capacities. Problems associated with originating data at a mobile, or other data, terminal, powered by a portable power supply, and transmitting the data as uplink data from the data terminal to the network part of the communication system remain to be considered and overcome.
More particularly, a manner is required by which to provide for the communication of uplink data, at high data rates, from a data terminal at power levels that are less than a selected, maximum power level. Communication of the data at the high data rates without a corresponding increase in the power levels at which the data is communicated permits communication services that must be performed at high data rates to be effectuated without a corresponding quick depletion of the stored energy of a battery power supply that powers the data terminal.
It is in light of this background information related to communication of data at high data rates in a radio communication system that the significant improvements of the present invention have evolved.